Page:Memoir upon the negotiations between Spain and the United States of America which led to the treaty of 1819.djvu/40

30 provinces, and that it will progressively extend along the latter. This increase, however, will be of no great consideration for a long time, whether because these countries are at an immense distance from the cities and open ports of the United States, or because cultivation is not the passion of the Anglo-Americans, or that adventurers who emigrate thither, have not sufficient funds to devote to great agricultural undertakings. If the present population of the United States continues to increase, as it has done for the last twenty years, it will not be extraordinary if it should cover the most important part of these countries, and even extend itself much further, in the course of this century. In 1790, it amounted only to 3,884,000 souls, and in 1810, it exceeded 7,000,000. The Americans transported with pride and vanity, calculate the future increase of their population by this flattering rate; and Mellish, who has lately given a map of the United States according to memorandums furnished him by the government, makes this calculation with great gravity, and prognosticates that the population will amoant in 1820 to 10,098,172 souls: in 1830 to 13 millions: in 1840 to 18: in 1850 to 25: in 1860 to 34: in 1870 to 47: in 1880 to 64: in 1890 to 88: in 1900 to 120: in 1910 to 164: and in 1918 to 211 millions. If this prophecy should be fulfilled, there can be no doubt, there will be in the United States, at the end of the present century, a sufficient population, not only to occupy the